* Vaccine testing usually takes years
(Updates throughout with quotes, details, background)

By Kate Kelland and Stephanie Nebehay

LONDON/GENEVA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - It is ethical to offer
unproven drugs or vaccines to people infected or at risk in West
Africa's deadly Ebola outbreak, a World Health Organisation
panel of medical ethics experts ruled on Tuesday, but cautioned
supplies will be limited.

The panel said any provision of experimental Ebola medicines
would require "informed consent, freedom of choice,
confidentiality, respect for the person, preservation of dignity
and involvement of the community".

The drugs should also be properly tested in the best
possible clinical trials, it said.

The West Africa Ebola virus epidemic - the world's largest
and most deadly so far - has killed at least 1,013 of the more
than 1,848 people it has infected in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Nigeria. The WHO has declared it an international
health emergency.

"Ebola outbreaks can be contained using available
interventions like early detection and isolation, contact
tracing and monitoring, and adherence to rigorous procedures of
infection control," the panel said. "However, a specific
treatment or vaccine would be a potent asset to counter the
virus."
Continued...